After two straight road losses and a narrow overtime victory against Texas A&M, a pair of home games is the perfect remedy for the Texas Longhorns. Fortunately, that two-game homestand starts with tonight’s tilt against the Texas Tech Red Raiders, a team that is just 2-4 on the road this year and will be playing without two of their starters in the frontcourt.

Historically, Texas has dominated this series, particularly in the Erwin Center. The Longhorns have won thirteen-straight meetings at the Drum, and are 21-3 against the Red Raiders since Rick Barnes took over as head coach. While Tech’s poor road play and battered roster will likely lead to an easy Texas victory tonight, fans should know that Coach Pat Knight has certainly improved his team since last year.

The key players

Tech’s offense is still anchored by the talented John Roberson, a lightning-quick guard from Plano who also has excellent court vision. When he’s not scoring his 13.8 points per game, he’s often threading the needle to get his teammates open looks. Roberson has more than five assists per game, and in Tech’s smooth-flowing motion offense, his ability to get the ball to his teammates at the right moment is key.

The other big-time playmaker for the Red Raiders is Mike Singletary. After being a starter two years ago, he was an on-again, off-again member of the starting five last season. Then came his signature game, a 43-point outburst against A&M in the opening round of last year’s Big 12 Tournament. At one point in his amazing performance, Singletary scored 29 consecutive points for the Red Raiders.

This year, there’s no question that Mike is the go-to guy. He’s leading the team with more than 15 points a game, and his presence down low will be even more important tonight thanks to the suspension of center Darko Cohaderavic and the injury to forward D’walyn Roberts. Texas must use their frontcourt depth to attack Singletary, as there will be a huge drop-off in talent if he is forced to the bench with foul trouble.

Thanks to the absence of Cohaderavic and Roberts, a ton of pressure now falls on the shoulders of Robert Lewandowski, a sophomore forward who has seen his production tail off after a promising freshman campaign. He’s great with his back to the basket, which gives Coach Knight the opportunity to focus a little more on an inside game instead of the typical Tech offense of constant cutting, midrange jumpers, and layups. The biggest knock on Lewandowski last season was his inability to get rebounds despite his 6’10” frame, and this year those troubles have limited him to about ten minutes per contest. Tech will need him to step up tonight, which includes making some immediate improvements on the glass.

Nick Okorie is a senior guard who is nearly as quick as Roberson, and is just as big of a threat to score. He’s only started ten games this season, but is still fourth on the team in scoring with nine points per game. He’s a very good rebounder for being just 6’1″, which is important for a team that will be giving up a lot of size against the Longhorns.

The Red Raiders don’t shoot very many threes, but if they do happen to get hot from long range tonight, it will likely be thanks to JuCo transfer David Tairu. The 6’3″ guard has only taken 36 three-pointers on the year, but is by far the most accurate long-range shooter for Tech so far. Tairu is also an in-your-face defender who loves to get in his man’s jersey well beyond the perimeter.

Brad Reese is the only other Tech player who is available tonight that has logged significant minutes. He’s another junior-college transfer, coming to Lubbock from Gulf Coast CC in Florida. He’s a versatile 6’6″ player who will likely be asked to fill a multitude of roles tonight. If Tech chooses to go small, which the roster changes may necessitate, he is able to slide down to the power forward position and actually can play some solid defense. Reese also has the handles to bring the ball up the floor and attack off the dribble, so the Red Raiders will likely be looking for some added offense from him tonight.

Keys to the game

As has already been mentioned, this thin Tech bench is going to have a hard time keeping up with the depth and size of the Texas offense. But based on the last twenty minutes of Longhorn basketball we’ve seen, it’s entirely possible that the Bad Horns could show up and tank against a well-coached team. Here, then, are our keys to getting the home win and getting back on track…

Extend the defensive pressure – The Red Raiders love to score on midrange jumpers and easy layups. They are constantly cutting across the lane, setting screens away from the ball, and forcing the defense to make decisions when their skilled ballhandlers penetrate. What Tech doesn’t like to do is shoot three-pointers. Texas needs to extend their defensive pressure out past the perimeter and make the Red Raider offense work 20 feet from the basket. They must force the cutters to catch passes out by the free throw line, instead of midway down the blocks for easy jumpers. If the Longhorns can keep their men in front of them and far from the rim, it should be very tough for Tech to cobble together much of an offense.

Get Dexter involved early – We talked about the issues leading to Dexter’s disappearance in last night’s column. While we’re not holding our breath for Barnes to make any of these changes in the near future, there has to at least be a concerted effort made tonight to work the ball inside to the big man early. Texas is going to enjoy quite the size advantage against this depleted lineup, so Pitt has to pile up some points. In addition, Big Dex also has to hold up his end of the bargain by avoiding the early fouls that have hampered his playing time in recent weeks.

Force mistakes – Statistically, the Red Raiders don’t make that many mistakes with the basketball. Their 19.2% turnover rate is 96th-best in the country, but they’ve shown a tendency to make many more mistakes on the road. In Tech’s last five road games — four of which were losses — their turnover rate was never lower than 20.9%, and it even spiked as high as 29.3% in a blowout loss to Oklahoma State. The Red Raiders coughed it up 21 times in that one, leading to 29 Cowboy points off the miscues. If Texas can take advantage of this trend and steal some possessions from a less-talented Red Raider squad, it should squash any hopes of an upset.